From its beginnings, Mary Washington has grown, constructing and incorporating numerous buildings across its campus. These expansions are important celebrations, recognizing the continued evolution of UMW. New buildings both remind us of our past and encourage us to look to the future. As can be seen below, the dedication of the Fine Arts Center in 1953 was a truly significant occasion, drawing large crowds.1 The same was true for the groundbreaking for the new Information and Technology Convergence Center in 2012, which was led by President Hurley and the UMW Board of Visitors.2

Simpson Library opened at the start of the Spring 1989 semester, named in honor of former university president Grellet C. Simpson. This building was constructed in the late 1980s as a replacement for Trinkle Library, which was heavily over capacity by that point. Originally designed to house about 100,000 books, its collection had swelled to about 300,000 by the 1980s. Situated along Campus Walk, Simpson has a number of features, including a climate-controlled archive room, offices,classrooms and meeting areas, as well as various scanning, printing, and computer stations. Yet the main asset is “nine miles of shelving capable of holding over a half-million items.”1 Several important groups are housed in the library, including the Special Collections archives and the ThinkLab, which features at 3D printer.

Construction of the Information and Technology Convergence Center started in June 2012. The ITCC is slated to open in the Fall of 2014, and will be joined onto the library, crossing over Campus Walk. According to the Office of the Provost, “The main floor of the building will have a walk up ‘e-station bar’ where users can quickly check e-mails or other communications. Group collaboration spaces, designed to incorporate digital collaboration software and equipment, are also a part of the proposed building. A multi-media editing studio will enable users ready access to computers with video editing and other similar software necessary for doing sophisticated digital productions. The building will also include a small video production studio.”2 Furthermore, the Speaking and Writing Centers are planned to relocate to the Convergence Center.3